rom internal evidence, apart from the
external testimony of the largest number of critical documents, we
must acknowledge to be genuine, are the most serious of the lacunae,
amounting altogether to the extraordinary number of two thousand four
hundred and fifty-six. They give the document a very distinctive
character; while even the less striking disappearances from the text,
which can only be apprehended on a close collation, more or less
affect the sense. German critics have stamped several of these
omissions with their approbation, especially those referring to the
supernatural, owing to their well-known repugnance to the miraculous
element in Scripture.

There are other peculiarities of the Codex which greatly interested me;
but the discussion of them would require me to go too much into critical
details. I must mention, however, the occasional use in the manuscript
of a Latinised orthography. The name of Silvanus, for instance,
mentioned in 1 Peter v. 12, is rendered into the Latinised Greek
_Silbanou_, instead of Silouanou, the common Greek form; and in 2 Peter
iii. 10, instead of the last word of the verse, _katakaesetai_, "shall
be burned up," occurs the singular word _eurethesetai_,--which means,
"shall be found." The Syriac and one Egyptian version have the reading
"shall not be found"; and either the "not" was accidentally omitted when
the Vatican Codex was copied from an earlier exemplar that had that
reading, or the writer had some confused idea of the Latin word
_urerentur_, "shall be burnt up," in his mind, and adopted the word
_eurethesetai_ from its resemblance to it--as a Latin root with a Greek
inflection. Some curious examples of Latin forms and constructions might
be given; and this circumstance has led to the hypothesis that the
origin of the Vatican manuscript might, after all, have been Italian,
and not Alexandrian as is commonly supposed. The Codex has also been
accused of theological bias; for in John i. 18, "only begotten God" is
substituted for "only begotten Son." This is considered by some to be a
reference to the polemics of the fourth century regarding the Arian
doctrines; although this supposition would make it of later date. The
order of the books of the New Testament in the Codex is different from
that with which we are familiar. The Catholic Epistles from James to
Jude follow the Acts, according to the order of the ancient Greek
Church; then come the Pauline Epistles; and the Epistle